and denunciations of British vengeance,
and his cranium well crammed with quotations from Vattel, Grotius,
Puffendorf, and other venerable worthies, was on his way to the shore in
a state of great excitement. When he reached the landing, he found only
the HULL of the privateer, with the spars and rigging. The officers
and crew had already disappeared, each carrying off his portion of the
spoils. The captain was not visible; but it was said he left the island
a few days afterwards for the United States, under an assumed name,
whence he subsequently proceeded to France, with an immense amount of
property, which the fortune of war had transferred from British subjects
to his pockets. The schooner was hauled up to the head of the careenage,
and on examination it appeared that every part of the vessel had been
so strained by carrying sail, and so much damage had been done to her
planks and timbers by worms, that she was good for nothing. The spars,
sails, and rigging were sold; but the hull, which soon filled with
water, remained for years, admired by every genuine sailor as the most
perfect model of a fast-sailing vessel that could be devised by the
ingenuity of man.

When the schooner John was nearly ready for sea, my uncle, Captain
Tilton, whom I had left in Charleston, arrived in port in a clipper
schooner called the Edwin. He was bound for Mobile, where he intended
establishing a mercantile house in connection with a gentleman named
Waldron, a native of Portsmouth, who had resided several years in
Charleston. I had one brief interview with him, but no opportunity
offered of entering into the details of my unenviable position on board
the John. On a hint from me that I was dissatisfied, and should not
object to accompany him in the Edwin, he gravely shook his head, and
remarked that such a course would be unusual and improper; that he was
about to retire from the sea; that it would be best for me to stick by
Captain Turner, in whom I should always find a friend, and perform the
whole voyage I had undertaken.

He left the port on the following day, bound for the Gulf of Mexico, and
I never saw him again. He encountered a "norther" on the coast of Cuba,
and the Edwin struck on the Colorado Reef, and all on board perished!

It was believed that Captain Turner, as a matter of course, would
procure a sufficient quantity of good water, and some tolerable
provisions for the forecastle hands, before we proceeded on our voyage.